In Touch With The Times, Ahead Of The Times
Contemporary To Become Prophetic
Extract from 'The Church of 2020' by Mal Fletcher
The prophet Daniel's response to the king of Babylon in Daniel 5:18-28 reflects the three levels of a truly prophetic life.
First, Daniel was clearly a student of the past, as it is seen from God's perspective. In the hands of human beings, all history is propagandized. Historians, even those with the best of motives, will colour events to suit their particular tastes or values. In the end, only God sees history in a truly objective way and it is he who has the final say on history, for history is still 'his story'.
Daniel studied and prayed to understand Babylon's past from the divine perspective. As a result, he knew the background to current events; he saw clearly the foundations on which Babylon's kingdom was resting. Its greatest weakness - perhaps that of all world superpowers - was pride; the arrogance of absolute power (cf. Daniel 5:20-21).
Second, Daniel understood the present from God's perspective. Though the experience of the past should have been instructive to present rulers, it clearly didn't figure in their thinking. It has been said that those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. Adlai E. Stevenson said that 'we can chart our future clearly and wisely only when we know the path which has led to the present.' Daniel may have been out of the king's sight for a while, but he wasn't completely out of the loop. He had kept his finger on the pulse of current affairs (cf. Daniel 5:22-23).
Being well informed about the past and the present, Daniel was then able to project into the future, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He knew that Babylon's kingdom, in its present guise, could not survive. The current regime was doomed by its own refusal to change or repent (Daniel 5:26-28).
We often think of the Old Testament prophets as super-mystics; men and women who lived on mountain tops, contemplating blades of grass, leaving behind rational thought while they had heavy, other-worldly experiences. In fact, they were very down-to-earth and often scholarly people. They were students of their times who saw themselves as watchers over contemporary generations.
Their knowledge of the real world was an important part of their prophetic role. It wasn't the subject of their message - that came by revelation. But God used their understanding of the times as a canvas on which to paint his vision of the future. They were able to bring God's tomorrow into today. They knew that, as Pope John Paul II much later put it, 'The future starts today, not tomorrow.'
Like all the prophets of old, Daniel understood several important things. They're as vital for us today as they were for him.
The first is this: for God's people, being contemporary is not an end in itself. To be contemporary literally means to exist at the same time as something or someone else. Churchill and Stalin had little in common, aside from their desire to overcome Hitler. Yet they are called contemporaries, because they lived through the same era in history.
We talk a lot these days about the importance of 'contemporary church' - and so we should. After all, any church should and must 'exist at the same time' as the city it is called to serve. Too often in the past churches have tried to speak to their Babylon without ever learning the Babylonian tongue. Daniel heard from heaven, but he spoke Babylonian.
Contemporary church should not be seen as an end in itself, though. It is a means to an end. The goal is not being contemporary, but becoming prophetic.
We should work to be in touch with the times so that we speak in a way which is ahead of the times. As Christians, we are not all called or gifted to be prophets, which is a good thing - we'd probably drive each other crazy if we were. But collectively, we can speak with a prophetic voice and model prophetic truth to our communities.
To be prophetic is to challenge contemporary values, culture, thinking and behaviour and point the way to something better - the kingdom of God.
God's prophetic people share the present experience of their generation so that they can shape the future destiny of their generation. God reveals his prophetic plans to his people so that they can call their generation into alignment with those plans (cf. Isaiah 43:19).
We cannot be prophetic unless we are contemporary, unless we work to understand the needs, ideas and iconography which have shaped our world. But unless we aim to become prophetic, being contemporary is pointless - we may speak the language fluently, but we'll have nothing unique or fresh to say. Our world will say, 'Why should we listen to you, when you clearly have nothing to offer that we haven't already heard?'
Many Christians fail to influence the future simply because they can't see anything good on the road ahead. For them, the future is a threatening place, filled with bad news. They're looking for the imminent arrival of the antichrist, rather than looking up for Christ's return. The Bible's teaching on eschatology was never given to turn us into hide-under-the-bed escapists. Most often, talk of the end-times in scripture is given in the context of life in the here-and-now. It usually features a challenge to better, or more holy, living.
How should we see the future? Living from a Christian worldview, it is appropriate for us to be wary and cautious, because we know that human beings are fallen. People are capable of great evil, even if they profess to be good. At the same time, we should be hopeful about what people can achieve, for they were created in God's image and still bear the marks of his creativity. We should also be proactive in our own behaviour, taking Jesus at his word when he says that all authority has been given to him and that he has shared his authority with us, empowering us to bring change.
Daniel was heard in Babylon because of the unique revelation he brought. His wisdom reached into a part of the universe Babylonian technology and philosophy could not contact. He brought to men a 'big picture' view of where they were headed - and why.
Copyright, Mal Fletcher 2006 & 2008. All rights reserved.
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